Accused South Yorkshire killer ‘never went in victim’s home’

A MAN accused of shooting dead a sleeping dad in a case of mistaken identity denied to a jury ever having set foot in the victim’s house.

Martin Fieldhouse, aged 29, allegedly crept into 32-year-old Lee Gray’s house on Greenwood Avenue, Worsbrough Dale, Barnsley, in the early of the morning and blasted him in the head with a sawn-off shotgun.

The prosecution says Fieldhouse thought Mr Gray was his own brother, Michael, whom he wrongly assumed was having an affair with the victim’s partner.

But Fieldhouse claims his brother pulled the trigger, saying he killed Mr Gray over an £80,000 drugs debt.

Giving evidence, he told jurors Michael was ‘intimidating’, adding: “Most people are frightened of him.”

Fieldhouse said Michael pressured Mr Gray to take responsibility for a driving offence on a night out hours before the killing.

Fieldhouse said: “He felt Lee was obligated to take the charge because of the amount of money he owed.”

Fieldhouse claimed his brother fired at him with a shotgun in 2006 during a row, hitting his stomach.

He said: “Me and Lee knew each other but not well.

“I knew he lived at Greenwood Avenue but I’d only stood in the doorway. I’ve never been upstairs.”